Tuesday, July 9, 2013

#Egypt : The Constitutional Declaration of #2013

The interim President Adly Mansour has issued a constitutional declaration made of 33 articles. The delcaration includes articles regarding the Freedoms ,the president , PM and the armed forces' powers as well the roadmap for the political transition.
The most important articles in this declaration that caught my attention are the following :

Article “1” :

A copy from the declaration's page

The Arab Republic of Egypt is a democratic regime is based on citizenship. Islam is the official State religion. Arabic is its official language. The principles of Islamic Sharia of Sunni are the principle source of legislation !! “This article is for the Salafists’ eyes only , of course it is discriminatory against Shia”

Article “22” :

A National defense council is founded and headed by the president “interim president”. It role is to discuss the security of the country,the budget of the armed forces. It has to be consulted in issuing military and armed forces law.

Article “24” :

The President’s powers :

Legislation role after consulting the cabinet. The role is transferred to the House of representatives as soon as it is elected.

To issue the general state’s police as well the public budge and to supervise it

Representing the State inside and abroad, Signing international treaties and agreements after the approval of the Cabinet.

Appointing the Prime minister, his deputies, the ministers and dismissing them from their positions

Appointing the civilian, the military employees and the political representatives according to the law

To declare war after the consulting SCAF and the approval of the National Defense council.

To pardon or mitigate punishment according to the law.

The other powers are being determined laws and bylaws.

Article “25” :

The prime minister and cabinet’s powers :

To join the President in planning the general policies of the state and to supervise its implementation according to the laws and presidential decrees.

To coordinate and monitor the work of the ministries and their following general authorities and agencies.

To issue the executive and administrative decisions according to laws and bylaws.

To prepare the state budget.

To prepare the general state plan.

To get and grant loans according to the constitution.

Article “27” :

The President declares state of emergency after the approval of the cabinet according to the law. The state of emergency is for 3 months and does not extend accept after the approval of the public through a referendum.

Article “28” :

Experts committee is formed by a presidential decree within 15 days from issuing this declaration. The experts committee includes 2 members of the Supreme Constitutional court and its commissioners committee, two judges from judiciary, two judges from State council and four professors of the constitutional law from Egyptian universities. The high councils of the authorities , judiciary and universities mentioned in this article choose their representatives “Did not say how” The committee will propose its amendments for the suspended 2012 constitution within 30 days after its formation.

Article “29” :

The Committee will show its amendments on another committee made up of 50 members. Those members represent all sects , groups and sectors of Egyptian society especially parties, intellectuals , labor,peasants, unionists , Al Azhar , Egyptian Churches, armed forces, police and public figures. The committee should include at least ten youth and women members “quota limitation”. Each party and group mentioned should nominate its representative while the cabinet should nominate public figures !! “And how they are elected or approved” The committee will finish the final draft of the constitutional draft in 60 days maximum before it is released for public discussion.

Article “30” :

The president shall put in to a referendum the draft amendments within 30 days of receiving from the committee.The amendments are effective as soon as they are approved. With in 15 days after approving the amendment , the President will call for a Parliamentary elections in a period that is not less than a month or more than two months. Within a week of holding the first session of the House of representative , a Presidential elections will be announced. The High elections commission will supervise the referendum accordingly.
Articles 28, 29 and 30 include the roadmap for the transitional period. I am tired to do the math honestly.
These are only the articles that caught my eyes , there are other articles other wel in the declaration dealing with freedoms.
Please read this important analysis by dear friend Bassem Sabry in Al Monitor.

18 comments
:

This is not a democratic constitution! There are no mentions of 3 most important elements - supreme value of man's rights and freedoms, secular nature of state and supreme juridical force of Constitution and only it - not any religious law or ideology!"The committee will propose its amendments for the suspended 2012 constitution within 30 days after its formation." So that paper is only about minor changes to old and crappy Morsy's constitution. Not about drafting new one by Constitutional Convention by delegates of people. Who gives that interim pres such rights?"Islam is the official State religion". So another Islamic state not a secular one. It can be easily transformed to Islamist state."The principles of Islamic Sharia of Sunni are the principle source of legislation !!" Total bs - that means Sharia law is supreme juridical force not the Constitution. One 1 article is enough to instill totalitarian rule and throw whole republic, human rights and 3 independent bodies of state authority to paper bin.This is constitution http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights and that as well http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-02.htm

In the west we are taught that secular government is 'good', but no government is secular in nature. The laws of every land is based on the religious views of the dominant 'tribe'. It does perturb me that Shia have been left out in the cold, Sunni don't recognise Shia as a Muslim religion,and there is the matter of promoting one religion over any other in any country. Religious freedom is the cornerstone of a developed society, in saying that Israel is exclusively Jewish, only Jews can get an Israeli passport and Israeli laws, courts etc reflect this. We can't take this coup seriously, it was intended to depose a leader that had sympathetic ties with Palestine and even sent them medicines and other necessities while it is under a tricky trade embargo. Egypt used to be one of those countries where it didn't matter what colour or religion you were, they were irrelevant for citizenship, but wherever the Israeli's interfere we can see a pattern of rigged elections (software); coups; black ops; disregard for the sovereign laws of other countries.

15 days to form the expert's committee,30 days for them to make constitutional amendments,60 days for "committee of society" to approve/change,30 days to a refenrendum about the amendments,15 days to call for Parliamentary elections,30-60 days until Parliamentary elections are held,in first week of parliamentary sessions the Presidential elections shall be anounced.

So it is max. 7 months until the Parliamentary elections should be held...

... The Egyptian military would not have acted without at least the tacit approval of the U.S. government, and evidence is mounting that Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice were in on the plotting before President Mohamed Morsi was arrested. The bloodshed that has followed is on their hands, and lots of luck ever convincing Islamists anywhere of the value of free elections as opposed to violence as an enabler of change. ...

The protest started because of what we call the dictatorship that morsy was using against the people, but not because the Islamic shariaa' , the majority in Egypt does not oppose the Islamic shariaa' , but we are afraid of whom will apply the Islamic shariaa in our country , the Islam protect the principles of freedom of religion.

on the bottom line, we in Egypt do not oppose the use of Islamic shariaa', but we are afraid of whom will aplly it and how , because there is alot of extremists that do not comprehend well the shariaa'

Really? Islam protects freedom of religion? how about el-mushrikeen do they have right to be mushrikeen and how about the Shi3a in Egypt or the Copts in Egypt you tell us and how about the kuffar wa el-3ilmaneyeen

>on the bottom line, we in Egypt do not oppose the use of Islamic shariaa',

So do you think that chopping arms and stoning people make sense? and do you think that men and women should not be equal in a court of the law and that Copts are not equal to you and that they should pay this hideous taz called el-Jizya and is it OK to enslave and rape the women and children of your enemies and do you think that it is OK to destroy the ancient monuments of Egypt and to ban arts and ballet and music and not to pay interest on loans which means that Egypt will not have access to the financial markets over seas and do you think that it is OK to have a Morshid the likes of the criminal Mohamed Badie what do you think?

>but we are afraid of whom will aplly it and how ,

And you should be because it is a barbaric law that does not belong to the 21st century sorry the truth has to be told

>because there is alot of extremists that do not comprehend well the shariaa'

Until Egyptians mature enough to accept a secular constitution, they will never be free. Islam (and Christianity and Judaism) is incompatible with the concept of individual freedom. Looks like Egypt will remain a repressive backwater.

Sorry Egyptians are Egyptians first and they are not Arabs and why would Egyptians embrace Arabian imperialism you tell me

>is a democratic regime

Egypt can only become a real democracy when there is true secularism which means until such a time that a Copt or a woman or a Shi3a or even a kafir wa 3ilmanee can become the president of Egypt until then Egypt is not a democracy

>is based on citizenship. Islam is the official State religion.

Again a country does not belong to an official religion its people? that is a different story so I propose that it be Egypt's official religions are sunni Islam, Shi3a and Sufi Islam and Christianity and Judaism and Egypt can also be a kafira wa 3ilmaniyya deal?

See why stating that the official religion of Egypt is islam is ridiculous?

>Arabic is its official language.

No it is not the real language of Egypt is el-lugha el-3amiyya and not this fake Modern Classical Arabic and how about the very unique language of Egypt aka Egyptian/Coptic?

I urge all readers: Speak our language the language of Adel Imam and Naguib Mahfouz and do not speak the language of el-wahabiyeen

>The principles of Islamic Sharia of Sunni are the principle source of legislation !!

Then let me ask is chopping arms OK and is stoning people OK and is it OK for Copts to pay the hideous tax called el-Jizya? and is it OK to kill kuffar? and would music and art become haram? and is it OK to see the monuments of Egypt being destroyed? and is it OK to enslave non Muslims and rape their women? because this is what el-shari3a is all about

See you cannot pick and choose what you want so welcome to stoning and chopping arms and no ballet and women must dress in what i call full Ninja!

No this is not what Egypt is about

>“This article is for the Salafists’ eyes only , of course it is discriminatory against Shia”

justdfacsmaam, The US Constitution was written by Christians though a debate continues that there were a few Deists which I might support though haven't got into it too much. Oh, and your self-righteous smugness is nauseating.

To lump Christianity into the MB cesspool is more than a little disingenuous. I also don't believe in dumping regular Muslims into the same cesspool...or secularists for that matter. No one deserves to be slandered like you just did but you're not the only one as it appears to be an ever louder mantra from the left as they gain more power by the divide and conquer method aka spliting everyone into groups and pitting them against each other.

It's my opinion that the lower echelon (in the MB or wherever) are taught to be terrorists/assassins by Imams deliberately misinterpreting the Quran for the purposes of those with power and authority to use when their need arises, such as, a bomb here and a bomb there... There's big money in it.

As it stands now in Egypt - the two men who hold the reins of power in Egypt have one thing in common - they were both appointed by the man they helped bring down. In looking at the history, and if I had to make a choice, the known quantity is the army.

How strange the constitution for a democracy or a republic which does not begin by the rights for all the people. As you remark "“This article is for the Salafists’ eyes only , of course it is discriminatory against Shia” -- I add: so what for Coptic and/other religion, and for secular .RegardL.

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